


carve me out, make me a home to lay all your things inside, call me whole, then leave

by kwritten



Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Clayton Family Dynamics, Dysfunctional Family, Family Dynamics, Multi, implied Charlie/Mia/Bass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-28
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-23 19:19:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4888921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kwritten/pseuds/kwritten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt #127 "For the two of us, home isn't a place, it's a person"<br/>for Nora/Rachel/Miles/Bass</p><p>When Nora got a job in weapons research and development with the largest conglomerate in the country, she didn't expect anything other than a pay raise and nights free of grading inane undergraduate papers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. sober is as sober does

“I’m going out!”

Nora nodded, not looking up from the stack of papers in front of her. Jesus, undergrads were getting more and more obnoxious every year. She may have muttered something like _have fun_ or _don’t stay out too late_ or more likely _mm hmm_ , and that was either an hour or two seconds before her mother knocked hesitantly on the doorframe and sidled into her office carrying a steaming bowl of soup. 

“You have to eat,” Bianca urged her oldest daughter gently. “Can’t this wait?”

Nora yawned and rubbed her eyes, “It’s important, mama.” She dug a spoon into the thick soup without enthusiasm. She was too tired these days to think of her body’s needs as anything other than a nuisance. It wasn’t like this at the university, then her days and nights were filled with a restless energy that kept her up until dawn. 

“I thought that leaving the university for that research place would mean less late nights… more fun things like dates and American Idol with your mom?” 

Nora shrugged, “It will. Eventually.” She gestured at the stack of paper, “Dr. Matheson has me looking through these potential recruits for a good match. Apparently I’m _good at people_.”

Bianca sat on the edge of the bed and nodded, playing with her fingers in her lap silently. 

“What’s wrong, mama? This is good opportunity. The pay is good and the hours will be steady. No more waiting tables.”

“You _liked_ your job before, too? You could go back.”

Nora sat the bowl down heavily on her desk, “Enough dancing around the subject. What is going on?”

Bianca looked up, her eyes bright and worried. 

Nora sighed, sinking down into her chair, “You read that article. That one about Ben Matheson and the nanotech.”

“He was _murdered_ in his own home, mija. That’s what the google says. And Patricia told me…”

“Mama, stop listening to gossip. No one is going to kill me for being an assistant to an assistant.”

“That woman sent you home with resumes, she trusts you, she could--”

“That _woman_? Rachel Matheson?” Nora stood up and collected her bowl and the now-cold cup of coffee off of her desk. “Dr. Matheson is one of the most influential women in the _world_ , it is a privilege to work with her. And anyway, don’t we _want_ my boss to like me, to trust me?”

“Not if that trust could get you killed, mija.”

Nora rolled her eyes, “I’m not working for the mob. I’m working for a tiny weapons development research division within a huge company that is trying to do things like cure cancer and manufacture alternative energy.” She had rinsed her bowl, put it in the dishwasher, and was starting a fresh pot of coffee when she felt Bianca come up behind her. 

“I am a mother. I’m allowed to worry.”

Nora turned and pulled her mother into a hug, “I know mama, but don’t worry about this, okay? Once Dr. Matheson has a new team in place, I’ll be able to go back to my side of the building and there won’t be any work coming home with me again.”

Bianca pet her hair softly and nodded, “Don’t get shot.”

Nora laughed and squeezed her little mother just a bit tighter before turning back to her coffee, “Where’s Mia anyway?” she threw over her shoulder as she added cream and honey to her cup. “Isn’t tonight the finale of one of your reality shows?”

Bianca’s voice cut sharp through the kitchen, “She told me she had to study late with a group from her class. She told me you knew.”

Nora turned to her mother, smiling broadly, “That’s right, just forgot.”

“Did you put any coffee in that cup of cream?” Bianca teased before heading off to bed with a kiss on Nora’s cheek. 

Nora stood in the kitchen and looked down at her coffee and swore under her breath, “Where are you Mia?”

 

She was sitting on the front porch with her fourth cup of coffee getting cold in her hand when a rusty old car - something that an idiot college boy would drive - pulled up in front of the house and a man, who was clearly not college-aged, gently eased Mia out of the backseat and escorted her up the front path. 

Nora stood up and gathered her sister to her without looking too closely at the man, or really hearing whatever the other two people in the car were shouting out the window, “Mia what the fuck? A study date?” Mia wobbled on her feet and giggled up at her. Nora sighed heavily, “Get in the shower, _quietly_ I’ll bring you coffee and water in a little while. If you wake up mama it’s your ass, not mine.”

Mia giggled “Bullshit,” she slurred. 

Nora held open the door and shoved her sister inside. It _would_ be Nora’s ass and not Mia’s if their mother woke up and found her stumbling through the house drunk. That’s the way it had always been. And maybe there were a few times - a few hundred times - that Nora jumped in front of a speeding train for her sister and that (maybe) made it a bit worse, but she wasn’t in the mood to deal with the silent treatment from Bianca Clayton. 

“Hey,” the tall man from the car leaned over, he smelled like smoke and booze, “I’m really sorry. I got her home as soon as I realized how drunk she was.”

Nora looked up into his face for the first time, he was at least ten years older than _her_ , he had no business being anywhere near Mia. Especially a drunk Mia. She glared at him, “Just playing the chivalrous knight?”

Behind him, another man about his age leaned out the front window, “Miles! The night IS STILL YOUNG!!!!”

“Miles?” She shook her head, “Stay the fuck away from teen girls.”

Nora turned on her heel to enter the house when he stuck out his hand and grabbed her elbow, turning her back to him. “Yeah ‘cause it would have been a lot better if the group of frat kids in the corner carrying roofies had gotten to her first.” The man in the car honked the horn and laughed. Miles closed his eyes for a minute, took a deep breath in frustration. “Your sister got home safe because of me.”

Nora sighed, “She shouldn’t have been out at all. Where did you find her?”

Miles let go of her arm and smiled ruefully, “Playing darts with my niece in a bar neither one of them should even know about.”

“Your niece?!” This was a weird night, but there was no way she was buying this bullshit. 

Miles stepped to the side so that Nora now had a clear view of the car, a girl with long wavy hair and a big smile waved to her enthusiastically from the backseat, “HEY NORA!!”

Nora blinked, surprised and then… _hell_ … she waved back, “Heya Charlie!”

“DON’T HATE ME NORA!”

Miles ducked his head down to whisper in Nora’s ear, “She … _might_ take after my side of the family?”

They watched Charlie give the man in the front passenger seat a wet willie and then the car began rocking back and forth as she tried to wiggle out of his grasp, her squeals of laughter piercing the dark night around them. 

Nora chuckled under her breath, “You seem to have your hands full.”

Miles gestured to the door of her dark house, “You, too.”

“Thanks,” Nora looked up at him and wrinkled her nose. “For bringing her home unmolested.”

He bowed slightly, mockingly, “Just doing my chivalrous deed for the day.”

“You only ever do just the one?”

“The rest of the time I’m what they call an unmitigated bastard,.. I’m pretty sure that’s the right phrasing.”

Nora looked back at the door, “I’d better make sure it’s not World War Three in there.” She had already opened the door when he touched her arm again, this time lightly. 

“Hey, um…”

She turned, waited. Behind him, the car was suddenly silent and still. He looked back over his shoulder at it and then back at her. 

“Ah hell… do you… I mean. Want to get dinner or coffee or … something?”

Nora stared at him, mouth open, “Is this a joke?’

“I swear I’m sincere,,” Miles raised his hands up in defeat. “Right _now_ I am anyway. I can’t make future promises.”

“Unmitigated bastard?’

“That’s the one.”

Nora chewed on her bottom lip for a second, “Do you do this often? Rescue teenage girls from bars and then make passes at their sisters?”

“There’s a first time for everything.’

“Said the idiot.”

“Said the idiot at two in the morning to a hot chick with nothing to lose.”

“Not a good idea,” she whispered. “This is so utterly _not_ a good idea.”

Miles shifted his weight and waited. He didn’t look like the kind of man who was patient. On the other hand, he also looked like the kind of man who would take his time, could tease and play a woman like a harp all night and keep on going. A fling with a man like that wouldn’t be worth the inevitable fallout, but it would be a glorious crash and burn. 

She shook her head, “I really don’t think--”

But his lips were already pressing against hers, tentative and soft, but _there_ and unapologetic. _Fuck it_ , she thought, rising up on her toes and reaching up to pull his hair softly. His arms wrapped around her lower back, pressing her against him, and it didn’t feel right, but it felt damn good. 

A loud whoop erupted from the car right as he began to lift her off her feet and the kiss broke as they both laughed, Miles looking away from the car and Nora turning to face it, winking at the passengers as she did so. 

He lowered her to the porch and backed up a step. “Unmitigated bastard,” he shrugged. 

“Coffee,” she said firmly. “That’s all I’m promising.”

He bent down and picked up the half-empty cup she had left on the step and handed it to her, “Coffee is good.”

“Charlie has my number. I won’t be offended if you change your mind under the harsh light of sobriety.”

Through the closed door she could just make out him saying, “I’ll be seeing you, Nora.”

She found Mia, sober as a judge, sitting in her bed, playing with her phone. She looked up when Nora walked in, slightly frantic when she didn’t find Mia in the bathroom, the living room, or her own room. “So did he ask you out?”

“Excuse me?”

“If you said yes, Charlie owes me five bucks. So did he ask you out?”

Nora grabbed the blanket and tugged, “Get out of my bed. We are officially not sisters until I get eight hours of sleep and you do all of my laundry.”

Mia’s phone chirruped in her hand as Nora crawled between her sheets, her heart thumping erratically in her chest. Mia thrust her phone into Nora’s face, momentarily blinding her in the dim light of the room, but as her eyes adjusted she saw it: her in Miles’ arms, her toes barely an inch off the ground, a bright smile on her face as she turned towards the camera. 

“I should have bet ten,” Mia whispered sullenly. “I didn’t know you were so hard up for a good lay.”

Nora smacked her sister in the face with a pillow, “Get out of my room.”

Mia wriggled under the blanket and turned on her side to face her, “Hey if this keeps moving at this pace, you’ll be married within the month and be living somewhere else. Won’t you miss me then?”

Nora glared at her, “I hate you.”

Mia turned onto her back, “You love me.” She looked around the room, “I think I’ll turn this room into a personal gym when you’re gone.”


	2. dumpster-chic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora and Rachel liked to take their coffee break curled up on the couch in Rachel's office, far away from the frenzied energy of the labs, but within line of sight of Rachel's assistant.

“Late night?” 

Nora looked up from the stack of applications still taking up way more real estate on her desk than she would like and laughed at the wrinkled nose of her boss, she was a total wreck today, there was no hiding it. 

“Come on,” Rachel grabbed her elbow and leaned close to her ear, “I need your … _expertise_ on something.”

Nora caught a quick glance of the wide-eyed expression of her team, something like awe and also restrained hostility that once again Dr. Matheson had whisked her off on a secret meeting. They didn’t know that these “meetings” were just the two of them curled up on the couch in Rachel’s office with cups of coffee in their hands and science was never really discussed, but Nora had the feeling that if that was made common knowledge, it wouldn’t do anything but fan the flame of frustration lingering beneath the surface of her coworker’s tight smiles. 

“You have to promise me something.”

Rachel sunk down on the couch with a happy sigh and shrugged, “Depends on what it is.”

“Unless you want my car to get keyed, you’ll stop coming down to get me every time you need a coffee break. Your presence disturbs the masses.”

Rachel peered over the top of her mug suspiciously, “That curly-haired kid with the glasses wants me to look at his invention again, doesn’t he?”

Nora snorted, “You aren’t doing me any favors you know.”

“I know me coming down there makes them resentful, but _you_ ” Rachel leaned over and poked Nora in the chest with one of her perfectly-manicured nails, “never answer your phone and are _always_ twenty minutes late for every appointment I put in your calendar. How else am I supposed to get you to leave your desk?”

Nora leaned her head back against the couch, “Give me less work? You’re the boss?”

“Why do you look like hell, anyway? It’s not those applications, is it? I told someone down in HR to only send over the ones that looked like they needed special attention, it shouldn’t be such a hassle.”

Nora raised her eyebrows, “You need to talk to HR then, because I walked into one hundred applications waiting for me on my desk.”

Rachel breathed heavily through her nose, “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”

Nora gave her boss her best innocent-eyes, “I thought you were trying to kill me slowly with bad grammar and personal essays?”

Nora sipped her coffee while Rachel marched over to her desk and spoke sternly to someone down in HR named Lucille, who should probably be given a raise considering the daily shit she probably has to wade through, not to mention a call from the main boss upstairs. After settling back in with her coffee, discarding her heels on the floor in a huff, Rachel narrowed her eyes at Nora, “You never answered my question. Please tell me this,” she gestured at Nora vaguely, “raccoon-chic is not a style choice that we are keeping around the office because I gotta tell you, it’s getting a little less-aesthetic and a little _more_ dumpster…” Suddenly she sat up, her eyes wide, mouth formed in a little circle.

Nora rolled her eyes, “Yeah, okay. I know. I look like a train wreck. Can we pick a new topic?”

“You—” Rachel sat down her coffee on the table and pressed her palms together in front of her face like Nora’s mother did when she prayed that her daughters would be more respectful. 

“Me.”

“You are getting laid,” Rachel nodded seriously, as if she had solved a rather complex mathematical equation. 

“Yes. Yup. You caught me. My dumpster-chic and I, we rolled around in old cardboard and brought home a fellow raccoon.”

Rachel shook her head, smiling, “Your hair is a mess because you didn’t spend the night at home, the raccoon eyes are just yesterday’s mascara, and the ridiculous scarf you are wearing is clearly covering up a hickey.” Rachel whipped her hand out and stole the knitted scarf off Nora’s neck before she had time to react. 

“And you know this isn’t a one-night stand because?”

“Because you wore a blue shirt yesterday and today you are wearing,” Rachel lifted up Nora’s white lab coat, “a Ramone’s t-shirt? Seriously?”

“Fine, you caught me,” Nora rolled her eyes. “It’s not serious.”

“You are wearing a dude’s shirt under your lab coat and thought no one would notice. You didn’t _tell_ me about him. It’s more serious than a one-night stand.” Rachel picked her coffee mug up off the table and leaned back against the couch cushions, tapping Nora on the leg with her toe as she did so.

“It’s… uncomplicated and casual. Nothing to talk about. Might as well _be_ a one-night stand if …”

“If… he wasn’t falling head over heels in love with you?”

“If,” Nora said firmly, “It wasn’t week three of this bizarre… one-night stand… thing.”

“Hmm,” Rachel twirled a strand of her loose blonde hair around one finger, “Yeah. Usually a casual booty call relationship either develops or fizzles by the end of week four. Is dinner involved?”

Nora shrugged, “Sometimes. Not always. Drinks sometimes. Doesn’t have to.”

“Is he seeing anyone else?”

“We… haven’t discussed it.”

Rachel snorted, “Are you leaving him _time_ to see anyone else?”

Nora rolled her eyes, “When it comes to juggling relationships, you and I both know men suddenly become experts at multi-tasking. How could I _possibly_ know the answer to that?”

“Would it bother you?”

Nora shrugged, bored.

Rachel’s eyes widened, “Are YOU seeing someone else?”

“You!?” Nora smiled cheekily at her friend-slash-boss-slash-whatever.

“Let me live vicariously through you!” Rachel whined. “Where did you meet him, what’s he like?”

“I… he escorted Mia home from the bar one night. It … he’s… nice.”

“Nice?”

“No…” Nora considered for a moment. “He’s… unpredictable. Older. Rough around the edges.”

“A bad boy?”

“ _Rough around the edges_ ” Nora grit out through her teeth. “Kind of a nerd, actually. But in like… a dude way?” She wrinkled her nose.

“Like…” Rachel cocked her head to the side, “Sporty? Knows all the statistics of all the players for all the teams?”

“More like… I don’t know!” Nora honestly thought this conversation would have ended five minutes back and felt like she was scrambling for something – anything – to say. “Like pop-culture savvy but not in a _Big Bang Theory_ way, more in like a … smart ass, above it all but still’s seen it all kind of way.” She looked over at Rachel and shrugged, “That literally makes no sense.”

“The real question,” Rachel dismissed her with a wave of her hand, “is he any _good_?” 

Nora felt her cheeks flush before she could even think of an adequate response and at Rachel’s crowing laugh, she dropped her empty mug in her lap and covered her face with her hands, “Shuddup.”

“That’s the only thing that matters!” Rachel picked the mug up off Nora’s lap and set it on the table. “If he’s good then… well… more only matters if you want more.” She peered at Nora curiously, “Is there more?”

“Probably not.”

“Then!” Rachel raised her hands in triumph, “Then that’s that.”

“Subject change?”

Rachel rolled her eyes, but assented with a shrug. 

“How’s your daughter doing?”

Rachel snorted, “Charlotte is still acing her classes, coming home drunk at three in the morning, being an absolute terror every other day and an angel when my back is turned. Nothing new.” She swallowed and wrapped her arms around her waist, “My brother-in-law is in from out of town and that’s… he’s _encouraging_ her, for lack of a better word.”

“Ben’s brother?” Nora asked softly. They didn't talk often about Rachel's husband, the founder of the company. He'd only been dead less than a year when Nora met Rachel by accident and got offered a job in one of the labs.

A shadow crossed over Rachel’s face, “It’s times like these when I wish…”

Nora looked down at her hands and then glanced back up at her friend, “Danny.”

“Maybe,” Rachel lifted one shoulder slowly and then dropped it with a sigh. “Maybe if she had a sibling, Charlotte wouldn’t be so reckless.” Everyone knew that the Matheson's youngest, Danny, had died at an early age from an incurable heart condition, it had been tabloid-fodder for as long as Nora could remember. Rachel said once that it was kind of nice to be so famous, she never had to explain all her scars to anyone, everyone already knew everything they needed to know. 

In the brief time that she'd known the other woman, Nora had noticed that Danny always seemed to be a much fresher wound than Ben. To have that many gravestones taking up space, she couldn't imagine. The rumor mill in the labs, and in the tabloids, suggested that Rachel and Ben hadn't had the most... _successful_ marriage, what they lacked in romance they made up for in creating a brilliantly successful company. 

“Or maybe she’d be pulling _him_ into trouble and you’d have two hellion teenagers to deal with,” Nora said cheerfully.

“Well… she’s not exactly a teen anymore and…” Rachel smiled wanly, “I’d be okay with two hellion beasts if it meant---”

A loud crash sounded on the other side of the door and both women turned their heads slowly to it with a frown. Their coffee dates had been interrupted by Rachel’s assistant before, several times, _every_ time – actually - a disaster or a phone call or a meeting calling an abrupt end to their chats. But Maggie generally had a bit more tact and grace than to just come barging in. They sat and watched the door for a few seconds, two loud masculine voices raising a cacophony interrupted by Maggie’s low English drawl and what sounded like furniture being toppled over. 

“What the hell?” Nora murmured. “You expecting an army?”

Rachel’s face lost a bit of color at Nora’s question, but she never answered it, because two men carrying what appeared to be a large slab of concrete through the door. 

“Rachel!” one of the men shouted. “We brought you a present!”

He was facing away from them, shouting over his shoulder recklessly. The other man was stuck out in the foyer, he waved a tanned hand through the door. 

“Turn around Miles,” Rachel said with a sigh. 

The man angled his head around to face them, caught sight of Nora, and then dropped the huge slab of… whatever… with a, “Oh fuck.”

Nora stood up, “Miles?!”

Rachel looked at her, “Nora? Miles?” She turned back to the man at the door, “MILES?!”

“Bass!” the man behind the door called out cheerfully. He peeked his head through the opening and grinned widely, “Nora!” He sounded a bit like he’d just found his old childhood dog hiding under his bed with his favorite ball, a bit surprised, a bit scolding, but mostly amused. Bass leaped over the slab of concrete Miles had nearly dropped on their toes second before, and picked up Nora to twirl her around in a half-hug, half-dance. “Nora my favorite!” He swung her around and then dropped her in front of Miles, “Look Miles! Nora!”

He sounded so happy Nora felt like she might scream. She edged away from Miles and looked back at Rachel, “Um…?”

Miles looked down at Nora and frowned, “Hey, you stole my shirt.”

“Rachel!” Bass bellowed out, “We brought you a desk!”

“No, you didn’t,” Rachel shook her head.

Bass looked positively wounded, “But… we _did_.”

“No, you didn’t. Because I _specifically_ said not to bring that disgusting old scrap of metal down to my office.”

“It is an antique! One of a kind!”

“It belongs in a scrap heap, Bass.”

Nora looked sideways at Miles and hissed, “Miles _Matheson_?! It didn’t occur to you to mention that your name is _Matheson_?” She whirled towards Rachel suddenly, “Oh my god, _Charlie_.”

Rachel flung herself back on the couch, and sighed, “Mia Clayton. Your sister’s name is Mia.”

Bass nodded genially, “I like that kid, Mia. Good influence on Charlie.”

Nora groaned. Rachel pat the seat on the couch next to her and Nora gratefully picked her way across the room and slumped down. 

Bass rubbed his hands together gleefully, “So. Where do we set up the new desk?”

“Why do you have to enjoy other people’s discomfort _so much_ ,” Miles spit out at his friend. 

Bass snorted, “It’s not my fault you three can’t keep track of your own lives.”

Miles’ face turned an ashy grey, “You didn’t.”

“Didn’t figure it all out while the girls were gossiping at the bar setting you two knuckleheads up on that first night?” Bass looked around at them, both wounded and smug. “You should really pay closer attention to them. My money’s on Charlie having a secret husband and several kids before you’ve even noticed she’s grown up.”

Nora whimpered, “They did this on _purpose_.”

“We can never tell them about this,” Rachel covered her eyes with one hand softly. “They’ll never let us live this down.”

Someone’s phone chimed. 

No one moved. 

Bass shifted on his feet, “So… what if… I sent pictures?” Three sets of eyes shot daggers at him from each corner of the room. “Okay, but your faces were just _priceless_ and Charlie promised… anyway, I told Mia if I was around I’d get photographic evidence and…?”

Nora nudged Rachel with her elbow, “Hey boss. I need a sick day.”

Rachel chuckled, “I’ll give you two, just don’t tell me where you bury the bodies. I don’t want to be culpable.”

“See?” Bass waved his phone at Miles, “Just look at your _face_!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm hoping for five chapters on this one, but we'll see. The next chapter is going to have to be a hard-hitter in terms of emotional exposition, but I don't want this to get too long. I guess you'll see what I mean when we get there.


	3. water balloons, probably

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> everything takes an adjustment period
> 
> Warnings for this chapter: canon-typical violence

Nora extricated herself from Rachel’s office and the entire Matheson Corporation compound as quickly as she could, murmuring excuses to Miles that made no sense and saying nothing to her supervisor, stopping at her work space long enough to grab the stack of applications (that she had a sneaking suspicion she shouldn’t even have access to) and cause a heyday of gossip that was going to make tomorrow a special kind of hell. She spent the rest of the afternoon hiding from her phone in a busy Starbucks with her stack of applications and a revolving supply of lattes. She was going to have a fierce caffeine headache tonight the way she was sucking down the coffee, and she suspected that somewhere around latte number three the barista with the sympathetic eyes had switched her to decaf, but it wasn’t like she wasn’t going to have a headache tonight anyway, might as well pretend to have some semblance of control over it. 

When she finally pushed her way through the front door, she had a speech prepared. A real good one, too. Something that Mia would remember forever and … 

“You have _got_ to be kidding me.”

She was going to become a coffee addict before the end of this, or a drunk. Or both. 

Her own money was on both. 

 

 

“Bass was _what_?” Rachel shouted over the turmoil of the bar. 

Nora took a prim sip of the beer in her hand and rolled her eyes, “I walk in and there’s mama, Charlie, and Mia sitting on the couch watching a telenovela, with bright green face masks on, and Bass…” she choked. 

“Bass painting Charlie’s toenails?” his shoulders shook with restrained laughter. Miles was the only one of them who seemed to be enjoying this entire situation as much as Bass and the girls. “She has him completely whipped,” he whispered to Rachel, leaning over Nora’s shoulder. “I haven’t seen him like this since—”

Rachel waved her hand in her usual dismissive way, “If we tell them to stay away from each other, they’ll start walking around the house naked just to piss me off.” Miles snorted into his beer and hid his head behind Nora’s shoulder, as if she had forgiven him for any of this, as if she didn’t think he was responsible for the whole mess. “He is incorrigible.” 

“Well he won over my mama, so there’s no getting rid of him now. She wants to meet _this_ idiot,” Nora nodded her head in Miles’ direction. She was doing her best to ignore him, ignore his hands on her waist, his fingers stroking her exposed skin, the way he leaned his body more and more into her personal space. She had called _Rachel_ for drinks, not him. Like there was any telling Miles not to be somewhere he wanted to be. And right now he wanted to be pressed up against Nora like they weren’t in the middle of a crowded bar with her boss and his sister-in-law laughing at him from a mere foot away. 

Rachel’s eyes flicked up to Miles and back to Nora, “So you saw them, facemasks and pedicures, and you just left.”

“Oh no,” Nora’s eyes sparkled. “I took a picture first.” She pulled out her phone to show them the evidence, but just then she got a message from Mia. 

They all whooped with laughter. 

“I guess there’s no competing with two twenty-year old girls, is there?” Miles finally choked out between wheezing coughs. 

Nora stared down at her phone, an image of Bass with tears trickling down his face, her mama gripping his hands tight as they both stared at the television. “Apparently he shares my mother’s taste in telenovelas.”

Rachel came around the small table and pressed her cheek into Nora’s, holding her phone out for a selfie, “This was the worst thing they ever thought to do,” she whispered, snapping the photo just as Miles pressed a sloppy kiss into Nora’s cheek. “Now we can compare notes whenever we want to.”

“Somehow,” Nora mused. “I think that’s what they wanted.”

After five minutes while Miles and Rachel were up at the bar getting refills, her phone chimed again, an image of Charlie on Bass’ lap, in the midst of tackling Mia, who was laughing open-mouthed and winking at the camera. Rachel leaned into Nora’s side and looked down at the phone, “I feel like the three of them need to come with a warning label.”

“So do we,” Miles said with a quirk of his lips as he handed Nora another beer. 

 

 

Over the next six months, the pranks and ridiculous selfies tapered off a bit, Charlie and Mia throwing themselves back into school with the same kind of recklessness that the two girls did anything else, Bass at first wandering around Matheson Corporation causing trouble before Miles finally hauled him off to do some contract work that neither one would talk about, but left them a little more broody than usual when they managed to come home on the weekends. Nora refused several promotions from Rachel’s office once news spread that she was dating a Matheson, until Rachel hired a really ridiculous looking lawyer to follow her around her workspace until she finally acquiesced to a small(ish) office and a managerial title. She had to upgrade to a (slightly) larger office when Charlie and Mia decided that they were incapable of studying anywhere but on the floor of her office. Bass gifted her with a ridiculously oversized antique oak desk that she was terrified to use and she found herself wearing worn classic rock tees under her labcoat often enough that it no longer felt strange. 

And meanwhile, Rachel grew distant, distracted, snippy but faster to apologize. 

 

“Maggie,” Nora hissed at Rachel’s assistant after waiting for her to leave the office, “Maggie what the hell is going on up here?”

Maggie peered down the hallway in the direction Rachel had marched off in, the ping of the elevator indicating that she wasn’t coming back anytime soon. “Jesus Nora, I have no idea.” She looked more harried than usual, her usual sleek look a little rough around the edges. “So many meetings, this guy named Randall that really freaks Rachel out. She’s taking a lot of secret calls from people I’ve never met. Something is really wonky, Nora.” Maggie shook her head.

“Tell me. There’s something else, tell me.”

Maggie sighed, “It reminds me of the month before Ben… It’s probably different. But I was her assistant _then_ , too. And there were a lot of secret meetings, a lot of politicians coming down here in person, like now.”

Nora looked towards Rachel’s closed office door, considering. “Hey just… keep me updated. Let me know if something really weird happens that you think I need to … I don’t know. Just…”

Maggie nodded, “You got it, boss.”

As Nora walked Maggie walk away, she realized that maybe Rachel’s assistant shouldn’t be calling her _boss_ , but it didn’t necessarily feel strange or out of place, either. This was so the opposite of what she signed up for when she took an entry-level position in the lab where explosions were required. She should have known there was going to be a catch. 

 

Down below, Mia and Charlie flanked Bass on both sides, before popping out from behind shrubbery to douse him thoroughly with the waterguns they had found in the back of the garage earlier that day. Nora watched him struggle to decide whether he should be furious or laugh, while the two girls collapsed into giggles just out of arm’s reach. With a roar, he made to reach out for Charlie, but at the last second, turned on his heel and tried to tackle Mia. She slipped out of his grasp and tore off running across the yard, Bass hot on her heels, Charlie sitting in a heap behind him, out of breath from laughing so hard. 

An arm wrapped around Nora’s waist and she leaned back into Rachel with a sigh, “They really do give him a run for his money.”

“About time someone did,” Miles said from below them, his eyes focused on the grill. “Probably was wise of you to hide out on the balcony once the girls found those waterguns.” He tsked at the meat, “If they damage the meat…”

“WE WON’T!” Charlie shouted from across the yard, Bass in hot pursuit of her as Mia chased him with her gun spraying water the whole time.

Rachel chuckled behind Nora and then released her, stepping back inside, her focus on the phone in her hand once again. 

“Hey boss?” Nora whispered. “Everything okay?”

Rachel looked up, eyes glistening, “I’m trying here.”

“Hey,” Nora held up her hands in defense, “I’m not mad. No one is mad. You have a hard fucking job. I’m just … you’ve been working a lot lately and I’m …”

Rachel pressed the screen with her thumb and brought the phone up to her ear before turning back into the house, without acknowledging Nora’s stumbling speech. Nora turned back to watch Bass, now with Charlie slung over one shoulder, Mia hiding behind Miles and the grill with a shit-eating grin on her face. She could hear Miles huffing at them and warning them that the grill was completely _off-limits_ , which was the exact moment that Rachel placed a balloon full of water in her hand, a finger pressed against her lips and eyes sparkling. Together, the two of them inched to the edge of the balcony, a balloon in each hand. Miles never saw the balloons coming. 

 

 

Around one in the morning, Nora got a call on her phone, “Rach? Everything okay?”

“I’m trying… I need to talk to you and Miles in the morning. I called Bass already, left a message. Can you rouse him up and get him to the office?”

“Rachel?”

“I’m sorry! Did I wake you up? What time is it?”

Nora looked over at the blinking light on her dresser across the room, “About one. Rachel are you okay?”

“I’m…” Rachel took a deep, ragged breath. Something tightened in Nora’s chest. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine. For now. But… if something happens. You find Miles and you get Mia somewhere safe with him, okay?”

Nora sat up, “Rachel!?”

“See you in the morning,” and then she hung up. 

Nora lay in bed for a while, trying not to freak out, walking through all the reasons why she shouldn’t just jump in her car, drag Miles out to Rachel’s house right that second and figure this out. She must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing she knew, Mia was shaking her awake. 

“Mia? What time is it?”

“I don’t… the grandfather clock in the hall says nine o’clock, but Nora!”

“Nine!?” Nora never slept that late, she leapt out of bed, eyes darting to her clock on the dresser. It was black. “What the hell?”

“Nora?” Mia’s voice sounded really small. “Nora nothing is working.”

Nora looked at her for a moment, tried to shake herself awake, “What do you mean? I paid the electrical bill.”

“No,” Mia shook her head. “Not here, not _anwywhere_ , the city is completely dead.”

Nora went to the window and peeked out, “A city-wide blackout? Maybe there’s something on the radio or …”

“My car won’t start,” Mia whispered. “My phone, the lights. Nothing is working. What is going on, Nora?”

"I don't know, sweetie. Probably nothing. Let's just... eat everything in the fridge before it goes bad! It'll be a party."

"And then what?"

Nora shrugged, "And then we wait until everything goes back to normal. I'm sure it won't take long."

 

 

It was a bit like a strange sleepover game gone wrong for the first couple of days. By the end of the second week, the food was gone, and the streets were full of wandering thieves looking for an easy score. They probably should have left the second day, like their neighbors did, but now they'd waited too long and there was nothing left to do but sit on their hands and hope...

Bianca spent most of the second week wringing her hands and whispering prayers over her grandmother's old rosary. Which was only slightly better than Mia's sullen silences, but not by much. 

They couldn't wait much longer. Things weren't getting better. The rumors they heard before their closest neighbors left with all their belongings strapped to their backs was that the Blackout hadn't left a single city untouched. It was world-wide. How anyone could know this without phones or radios or... How could anyone know anything anymore, after this? 

 

 

Nora sat down on the edge of her bed and stared up at her sister, head spinning. “Miles.”

“Oh fuck you!” Mia’s voice rose to an uncharacteristic squeak. “It’s a weird goddamn apocalypse and the first thing you can think about is your boyfriend?”

Nora surged upwards, “Rachel. She said. She…” She looked at her sister and squared her shoulders, “Look, do _you_ know anyone more prepared for something like this than Miles and Bass?”

Mia’s eyes widened, “No.”

“So…” Nora looked around her room. “So pack a bag. I’ll wake up mama and we’ll…” her voice trailed off as she spied the shadow in the hall outside her room.

“No need, little lady,” a man with a slight drawl said from her bedroom doorway. “I don’t think mama’s gonna wake up for a long time.”

Before Nora could react, the man pointed the shotgun in his hand at Mia and pulled the trigger. She didn’t make a sound as her body collapsed to the ground. 

Tears smarted in her eyes, a scream caught in her throat but refused to make itself known. 

“Rumor is you’re fucking one of those goddamn Mathesons, little bitch,” the man spit out with venom. “They’re the ones that did this. And they’re gonna pay.”

Nora closed her eyes and prayed to whatever god was still listening, if there was anyone left to listen. She just wasn’t sure what she was praying _for_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry not sorry about the way this is going. I knew it was going here from the beginning and I know it's a big shift in tone, but... hopefully you'll stick it out to see what happens next.


	4. Venus and Lady Macbeth have something in common: you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora fights her way from the home that no longer is a sanctuary, to the Matheson estate in a last bid for survival.

_His fingers slid up her bare arm, lightly, grazing her skin like a whisper. “Keep focus,” his lips tickled her ear and she did her best not to lean into him, keep her back straight, her eyes on the target in front of her. His hands slipped to her hips, gently twisting her slightly so that she was more balanced, centered, as if her body had just been waiting for his direction, as if she would topple over without his hands firmly pressing into her bones. “Now,” he stepped back suddenly and she released her body the way he taught her, smooth clean lines, dropping the tension in her muscles with a precision she hopes he’ll be proud of._

_Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Charlie and Mia jumping with excitement, Bass’ clear eyes sparkling at her in approval, but it’s the hum of satisfaction from the man behind her that she counts on, that she’s yearning to possess._

_Rachel laughed, handing her another drink, “Miles has always had a strangely showy sense of foreplay.”_

_Nora kissed her cheek and winked at Miles, “A girl needs to learn how to protect herself in this wild, wild world.”_

_Miles slips the long, sharp knife into the holster strapped to her thigh and stole the drink out of Rachel’s hand in the same fluid movement. Conversation twisted and leapt, Charlie and Mia tackled Bass to the ground and the night filled with the sounds of laughter and shouts and hidden murmurs._

_“Keep it on you,” Rachel whispered in her ear as Nora dragged Mia towards the car as the sun started to rise. “Always know where it is,” her fingers trailed over the leather strap on Nora’s leg and she shivered at the touch, at the persistence in Rachel’s tone. “Promise me.”_

_“I promise.”_

 

 

There was so much blood on her hands, Nora felt as though she’d never be clean, it dripped down her arms and pooled in her palms, she could feel droplets of moisture drying on her face. She nearly smiled at the sensation, except it seemed too early for that level of dark humor. She stepped over the hulking, rasping body in her bedroom and didn’t even try. If she was going to survive, she needed to look like she had the right to survive. No one ever attacked Lady Macbeth, she always pointed to the blood on her hands like a calling card.

Everyone needs a role model. 

Nora picked up the backpack in the hallway, swung it over her shoulder, filled a water bottle in the kitchen sink and tucked it into the side pocket near her ribcage, then walked out her front door without looking back, the knife Miles had gifted her held loosely in her hand. She had been wearing a simple white tanktop and dark green jacket over jeans with her hiking boots when she woke up that morning; from a glance downwards she knew that the white was now marred with the dark brown stains of her sister’s murderer’s blood. 

_Good_ , she thought, a smile splitting her cracked face in two. _Let them know._

There should have been a moment or two or a thousand between watching her sister crumble to the ground and slashing a man’s throat with one smooth motion of her arm when she should have mourned the loss of her family. Her sister lying on the floor of her room, her mother’s still and blood-soaked body slumped over her bed, but there wasn’t time, there wasn’t space. 

If she sat down on the ground and let herself cry, she’d never stop. They’d find her body, shaking and covered in blood, her eyes glazed over and her mouth held open in a silent scream. They’d kill her next. For surviving, for killing the man that dared come first, for existing. 

Maybe that was the world that had been born from the ashes. 

She saw a neighbor, an old friend of her mother’s, scurry out of her path and eye her with terror. She kept walking and didn’t let it bother her. 

She was going to live, damnit. Even if it felt like there was nothing worth living for. 

 

 

_”Here Nora,” Mia’s voice came through the dressing room door as several hangers fell on her head. “Try these on.”_

_Nora looked down at the skimpy purple, glittery dress in her hand, “No.”_

_“You will put it on and come out and let us see it or Charlie and I are going to come in there and put it on you with our own two hands.”_

_“I’d prefer the second option,” Bass’ droll voice came from somewhere further away. “Resist, Nora. Don’t let them boss you around.”_

_Charlie giggled and another hanger fell on Nora’s head, “This is Bass’ suggestion.” Nora ignored the black slip of cloth that was now on the top of the pile of things the three of them had thrown into the changing room over the past five minutes and looked in the mirror._

_She had picked out a simple white satin dress with a scoop neck and basically no back to it at all. It clung to her thighs, while she was standing still it fell nearly to her knees, but she knew the minute she moved the fabric would slid up to mid-thigh. She twisted her hair up into a knot at the base of her neck and secured it with the black hairtie that she always kept on her wrist and smiled. This was the one. The first one she looked at, the first one she tried on. She knew it._

_“Come oooooon,” Mia whined on the other side of the door. “Show us the purple one or I’m sliding under the door and—”_

_Nora opened the door and raised her eyebrows at her sister, “Shut up.” She walked to the large three-way mirror that faced the little boutique Mia had dragged her to and appraised herself. Maybe white was a little cliché, a little too damsel-y, a little too ‘pretending to be innocent’ but it was perfect. It made her feel… dangerous. She twirled on her toes and laughed at the way the fabric slid further up her legs with the slightest movement and stopped when she caught a look at Bass’ face. “Do you like it?”_

_Bass cleared his throat, his gaze traveling slowly up the length of her body. Nora tried not to squirm under his appraisal. “Damn woman,” he whispered._

_Nora turned her back on him and faced the mirror again, her hands smoothing down the dress in front nervously, “But will Miles like it?”_

_Bass came up behind her and gently took her hair out of the twist on the back of her neck, arranging her hair over one shoulder, his hands lingering just slightly on her arms and waist before pulling away. “You should only ever wear this. Like ever,” he said, his voice husky._

_Nora smiled at him in the mirror nervously, “Maybe I should try the black?”_

_Bass shook his head slowly._

_At that moment, Mia and Charlie appeared from around a corner, arms full of more slips of clothing to inflict on her, giggling to each other. Mia stopped and dropped everything in her arms and squealed with glee at her sister. Charlie threw her armful of hangers on a nearby chair and came up to wrap her arm around Nora’s waist, “You look like… a really _naughty_ Venus in that get-up. I totally officially approve.”_

_Mia jumped up and down behind them, “If you don’t get laid, I’m personally going to kick your boyfriend in the balls.”_

_Nora turned to them and took a deep breath, “Guys, what are we even doing here? I don’t know for certain that Miles is even planning anything for tomorrow…”_

_Charlie shook her head and wrinkled her nose, “He’s been talking about this date for like a month, trust me.”_

_Nora turned to Bass with a pleading look, but he just smiled at her, his eyes dark and hooded, “Do you really even need a reason to wear that dress? You could just put that on for a Wednesday night at home with Netflix and he’d be thrilled.”_

_Nora shrugged and went back to the dressing room, pulling on her jeans and the _Killers_ t-shirt she had stolen from Miles’ room that morning. After a moment’s hesitation, she took a deep breath and darted out of the stall, and ran out the front door of the boutique, the sounds of Charlie and Mia shouting following her. She made it to the coffee shop next door and was halfway through ordering a latte when the girls caught up with her. _

_“A chai tea latte with white chocolate,” Charlie piped in over her shoulder._

_“And a caramel macchiato with an extra shot for me,” Mia told the barista._

_Both girls kissed Nora’s cheek and chorused ‘thanks sis’ before flinging themselves into a table by the window and started whispering to each other. Nora rolled her eyes at the barista, “And a black coffee with room also.”_

_“Staying in or to-go cups?” the barista sparkled at her._

_“Staying in,” Nora handed the girl her credit card and smiled. “And make that macchiato a decaf please?”_

_The barista nodded silently, ran the card, and handed it back to her. “I’ll get that black coffee now and bring the rest to your table,” she said._

_Nora turned to the table, a coffee in her hand, right at the same moment that Bass charged through the door, looking slightly harried and a little disoriented._

_Nora pressed the coffee into his hand silently and took a seat next to Mia at the window._

_Bass looked down at the coffee in his hand for a moment, as if startled, and then sat down heavily next to Charlie, setting the coffee down on the table and then swinging his arm over her shoulder._

_“Why did you run out, you big loon?” Mia snapped out, her eyes sparkling._

_Nora sighed, “Two hundred dollars is a bit much for a dress for a date I’m not even convinced is happening, for an _anniversary_ I’m pretty sure Miles is completely unaware of.”_

_Charlie snorted, “He wrote down your six month anniversary in the calendar in the kitchen the night you agreed to go out with him.”_

_Nora smiled up at the barista as her latte was set down in front of her and wrapped her hands around the warm mug. “I have something in my closet that will do just fine if he really does surprise me with a candlelit dinner, okay? Don’t worry about it.”_

_The barista tsked over her head and then whisked off to take the orders of a large group of teenagers that had just come through the door._

_The girls teased Nora with varying levels of seriousness for the next five minutes and then changed the subject to the upcoming softball game they had with their community league while Bass silently nursed his coffee and stroked Charlie’s arm absently with his fingers. Nora enjoyed the afternoon sun rolling through the window, the feel of Mia’s warm arm pressed against hers, the sound of the girls chattering and giggling. She had grand plans of doing laundry and eating chocolate that Saturday, but Charlie and Mia had dragged her out of the house on false pretenses of a movie and then threw her into a dressing room unceremoniously. Many times before, Nora had wondered just _how_ m exactly, Bass ended up the third wheel on so many of the girls’ shopping sprees and various adventures, but now she knew. _

_The two devils didn’t take no for an answer._

_“Hey,” she nudged Mia with her elbow. “Let’s go see a movie like you promised this morning. Check the times.”_

_“My vote is for the poltergeist one,” Charlie jumped in, pulling out her phone._

_“We knooooow,” Mia rolled her eyes. “Whatever, you need a new genre.”_

_Charlie let out a gasp, “There’s a new Zac Efron movie! Let’s see if we can get Bass to cry again!”_

_Mia let out a low hum of approval as Bass grumbled under his breath and Nora collapsed into laughter, kicking him under the table in amusement._

_The next morning, she found a white bag hanging on the doorknob of her room, the white dress inside, and a note from Bass. **You were born to wear this dress. ~B**_

 

It took her a little over a week to walk the twenty-odd miles to the Matheson mansion on the outskirts of the city, nestled far back in a gated community that the Blackout had nearly forgotten. She was dirty and hungry and exhausted and not even certain that anyone would be home. Why would they still be there? Would they even want her?

Where else could she go?

She walked up to the house with a straight spine, her knife still in her hand, a gun she had pulled off a would-be attacker tucked into the back of her jeans, choosing to arrive by way of the long driveway rather than skirt the trees on the perimeter. If they were inside, she needed them to know she was coming. If they weren’t there, if the house had been taken over by someone else, if they were dead – it didn’t matter if someone else saw her coming, if she was picked off like a baby deer strolling through a gun range. If this wasn’t the sanctuary she needed, then she might as well die, there wasn’t anywhere else to go. 

Okay, maybe her survival instinct was a little on the fritz from dehydration and exhaustion and the pain from the bruise on her right thigh from the night she thought she was safe enough to sleep but wasn’t. 

It didn’t matter anyway, survival instinct and dried blood on her hands and shirt or not, she was about three yards from the house when Miles came tearing out the front door, lifting her up in a desperate hug, Rachel shouting something from behind him and Bass flying out of the trees on her left, gun in his hand, to bury his face in her neck. They practically carried her between them into the house, Charlie appearing from somewhere to Nora’s right to follow them into the house, her crossbow in her arms and eyes narrowed at the entrance to the driveway. 

Had they really all been real people with lives and jobs and papers due just a few weeks ago?

Once inside the door, Bass took Nora by the shoulders and smiled down at her, “Now, where’s Mia? Let’s get you some food and you can tell us where to find her, we’ll get her.”

Nora just stared at him blankly, her eyes darting to Miles and Charlie behind him, seeking help, seeking answers. 

Charlie let out a low keening sound and sunk to the floor, burying her head in her arms and shaking. Miles backed up a few paces, his face turning a deathly shade of white. Nora flicked her eyes back to Bass, his face so close to hers she could have leaned forward just an inch and kiss him on the lips. He didn’t believe her, she didn’t say a word and neither did he, but he didn’t believe her, his grip tightened on her shoulders and his eyes begged her to lie, but she couldn’t. So she leaned forward, pressed her lips against his cheek, the stubble there a comfort to her frayed senses. 

So the world was real, so she could still feel. 

“Mia?” Rachel’s broken voice came from behind her and Nora turned, Bass’ grip lessening slightly. She looked at Nora, at the blood covering her shirt, the haunted finality to Nora’s gaze, and tears began streaming down Rachel’s face. 

They stood there, Rachel never breaking Nora’s gaze, Bass shaking, Miles leaning against the door, Charlie sobbing on the ground; they stood there silently for an eon or a single, eternal moment.


	5. adulthood is overrated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> there's a lot of explaining to do, and a lot of figuring out how this all keeps working

Bass spent the first week after Nora showed up at the mansion hiding out in the trees surrounding the estate during the day and tucking himself into everyone’s bed at night. He didn’t sleep, just curled himself around whoever would take him like a cat and stared wide-eyed at nothing, his breath coming out in hot, shallow breaths. Charlie spent her days cat-napping in the sun on the roof, her crossbow at her side, her nights in the trees that housed Bass during the day. Nora thought they’d probably get through the mourning period better if they stopped avoiding each other, but anytime the two were in the same room, it was clear that distance was probably for the best. 

“They need to fuck or fight it out,” Miles grumbled one morning over coffee, watching Bass circle around Charlie like a skittish colt. 

Rachel sighed and handed Nora a cup, “Give them another week and then put them in the gym. I don’t relish the idea of sewing up my own daughter’s face, but it’s better than us living like this forever.”

Miles nodded and then took up his sentry on the back balcony without a word. 

 

Nora spent the first three nights alone in one of the spare rooms, refusing Miles’ silent offer and Rachel’s questioning gaze. Not that she was ever really alone, Bass climbing in and out of her bed at various times of the night, as if trying to convince himself that she was still breathing, his chest pressed against her spine. She didn’t really relish the company, but she didn’t hate it either. 

No one spoke Mia’s name out loud and that was probably worse. 

They all kept their distance from Nora, their faces tightening when she entered a room. She was a daily reminder of what they had lost, the last little piece of their fucked up family that wasn’t there to hold them together. 

On the fourth night, she got tired of lying awake in an empty bed, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling, her mind buzzing in circles of nothingness and blackness. She thought maybe she’d be haunted by the memory of her sister falling, of her arm swooping in a tight arc to slice open a man’s throat, of her hands dripping with blood, of the nights she spent walking walking walking from the end of her life into an unknown nightmare. She wasn’t. 

That almost made it worse. 

She wandered the halls of the mansion, watched Charlie dart in an out of the trees on the perimeter of the property, gazed silently at the art that hung on the walls, the still-perfect furniture filling every beautiful room. She ended up standing outside Rachel’s room, the door open, watching the gentle motion of Rachel’s body breathing in and out. Nora crawled in, mimicked Bass’ way of curling up around a source of warmth like a small animal, wrapping her arms around Rachel as if in supplication. 

“I’m sorry,” Rachel gasped out, her hands coming down to hold Nora’s arms down on her waist. She sobbed a little, her body shaking, “I’m _so_ sorry.”

Nora held her close, pressing her face into Rachel’s back, not responding. 

What could she say?

She wasn’t even sure what Rachel was apologizing for. 

Maybe she wasn’t ready to ask. 

 

 

Just a little over a week after arriving, Nora woke up with Bass pressed against her back like always, Rachel’s hands in her hair and head on her shoulder, Miles’ fingers lying gently on her waist, his arms draped around Rachel. A movement near the door prompted Nora to raise her head, Charlie stood in the doorway and winked at her slyly. A moment later she was leaping onto the bed next to Bass with a peal of laughter. 

She was probably lucky Bass didn’t snap her neck when he woke up. Or maybe there was something in his senses that knew to protect her if nothing else. Or maybe he was awake and sensed her approach. 

They none of them had defenses when it came to Charlie, she could crawl inside their skin like she owned it. 

Maybe she did. 

 

 

_”Have you ever been in love?” Mia asked, draped across Nora’s bed and tossing a softball up into the air with one hand. She popped her head up, “Are you in love with Miles?”_

_Nora glanced at her sister over her shoulder and laughed, “Why? Did someone finally steal your dead heart and teach it how to pump blood again?”_

_“Hey!”_

_“Hey nothing,” Nora turned in her chair and rested her chin in her hand, “I’m the one that had to nurse little Pietro’s heart after you broke it, he cried on our front porch every day for two weeks. You are a heartless excuse for a human being.”_

_Mia glared at her sister, “I was thirteen.”_

_Nora laughed, her voice a clear bell cutting through the room, “And a bit of a monster.”_

_Mia frowned at the ceiling, “I’m not a monster, am I ?”_

_Nora stood up and crossed the room, lying down on the bed next to Mia, “Of course not. What’s this all about anyway?”_

_“Can you… do you think it’s possible to love two people at the same time?” Mia steadily refused to meet Nora’s eyes._

_“Well… I guess so. I mean, they make movies about this all the time, so it must happen to people sometimes.”_

_“Am I broken?”_

_Nora rolled onto her side and poked her sister, “You look whole to me.”_

_Mia rolled her eyes, “I don’t want to choose. What if… what if there were two of Miles. Like two people that just… _fit_ and you didn’t want to give either of them up?” A tear rolled down Mia’s face and something clenched in Nora’s chest. Mia turned her face to her sister and smiled, “Sorry for wanting so much, I guess.”_

_“Hey loser! Get in the car we’re going shopping,” Charlie suddenly shouted, leaning against the doorframe with a smirk on her face. “Why aren’t you ever in your own room? You’re like a cat.”_

_Mia jumped up and snickered, “I like distracting Nora when she’s supposed to be working. She gets all grouchy and tsks a lot.”_

_Charlie wrinkled her nose, “Is mom sending you home with work again? What a fucking slave driver.”_

_Nora rolled onto her stomach and faced the door, her legs swinging in the air above her, “Your mom encourages her employees to publish independent research, it makes the company look good, and it makes me more fancy at parties.”_

_Charlie raised her eyebrows and said nothing, Mia tugging on her arm and whining that if they were going to leave, they might as well leave. After a moment, Nora heard Bass’ large, booming voice coming from downstairs and she smiled to herself as she went back to her work._

 

 

“He said that the Mathesons did this.” Nora looked at Rachel from across the breakfast table, a piece of bacon from Miles’ grill in her hand. “I heard a lot of rumors on my way here and I’d love to just wait out the storm here with you and your impressive food storage, but…”

Rachel sighed and glanced out the window where Charlie and Bass were sparring on the grass, Miles supervising and directing in a low voice. “It’s a long story, Nora.”

“We have all the time in the world,” Nora said archly. 

“How about I tell you while we’re on our way to fix it?” Rachel countered, her voice full of that inner steel that had seemed only to strengthen in the past weeks. 

“You never said anything about fixing this,” Miles said from the doorway, his arms folded over his chest. 

Nora watched Charlie land an impressive roundhouse to Bass’ face and sucked in a breath. Charlie stepped back and breathed heavily as Bass stared at her. If she hadn’t been watching, she would have missed completely what happened next, Charlie suddenly collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down her face, and just as quickly, Bass had knelt down beside her and wrapped her up in his arms, kissing her face softly. 

“Well,” she said softly. “I guess that solves that.”

Rachel and Miles glanced out the window, startled. Miles shifted uncomfortably, like he was thinking about going out there and putting a stop to it. Rachel’s face clouded over slightly before she looked back at Nora. 

“You know, Danny was always such a happy baby. Right away, he had the sweetest disposition. He was never not smiling. But Charlie,” Rachel shook her head. “It was like everything had to be a fight, she was always trying to prove something to everyone, or maybe just to herself. And then when Danny died…” Rachel’s voice broke and she cleared her throat, shaking her head slightly. “She tried so hard to fill that empty space, to be happy and light the way that he was.”

Miles laughed, “One minute she’d be screaming at you about her toast not having enough butter on it and the next she was dancing around the room.”

Nora watched Bass cradle Charlie in his lap, talking to her in low tones, wiping the tears from her face, “They’ll be okay.” She looked at Rachel across the table, “We’ll be okay.”

Rachel nodded, tears trickling down her cheeks. “I was worried… when you came and Mia…” She looked at Miles for help, but he backed up a step and turned to the coffee pot to top up his mug. “That she’d do it again, try to fill the space.” Rachel shrugged. “I guess she’s been doing it her whole life, adding one more ghost to the pile doesn’t change much.”

Nora pushed her plate away from her, set her arms on the table, and rested her head down. 

“We have what we have,” Miles said, it sounded like a quote or a fortune cookie. 

 

 

_Nora walked into the Matheson house without ringing the doorbell and cocked her head to listen for where everyone might be. She had gotten a series of frantic txts from Mia and Charlie demanding her presence, a pic from Bass of Miles at the grill in his ‘kiss the cook’ apron, a voicemail from Rachel asking for Nora to save her from a night of _Rocky_ movies, and another pic from Bass of Charlie hiding Miles’ phone from him in a bag of rice. A loud burst of laughter erupted from down the hall and Rachel came sprinting around the corner, carrying a pillow in each hand and trailing a blanket behind her like a cape. _

_“Oh good!” she said upon seeing Nora. She threw one of the pillows at her and then turned around, sliding a bit in her socks on the tile floor, raising her voice to shout, “NORA’S ON MY TEAM!”_

_A chorus of groans and shouts of dismay filled the house, Miles appearing at the top of the stairs to point a finger at Nora accusingly, “Traitor! I thought you were my girlfriend.”_

_“She’s a free agent, and I’m offering her a chance not to piss off her boss,” Rachel laughed, her face upturned to Miles._

_Nora raised the pillow in her hands like a shield, “Okay. Pillow fight. What are the stakes? And who are we fighting?”_

_“Movie choice,” Charlie called from down the hall near the kitchen. “Girls vs moms vs guys.”_

_Nora bristled, “Hey now, how’d I become a mom in this scenario?”_

_At that moment she felt a slight draft behind her, spun on her heels, and hit the person behind her in the face with the pillow in her hand._

_“BASS IS DOWN!” Rachel screeched happily._

_Bass winked at Nora, “Mia was the first to get hit, I’ll just go keep her company.” He started running down the hallways and then slid the rest of the way in his socks, laughing as Charlie hit him with her pillow across the back._

_“Which one of us is an adult in this situation,” Nora whispered to no one in particular._

_“Adulthood is overrated,” Rachel beamed at her._

 

 

“How are you holding up?” Nora asked somewhere after mile fifty and just before blisters became a natural way of life. 

Charlie looked up at her and beamed, “My idiot says he can get us fresh meat for dinner, so I’m hanging onto hope that he doesn’t accidentally shoot himself in the foot.”

Nora laughed and sat down on the log next to her, stretching out her legs and pretending that her whole body didn’t hurt like hell. They had packed what they could carry and left the rest. There was a slight debate over who all was going to take on the suicide mission against corrupt government officials and the hordes of wandering murderous vagrants, but in the end all five of them stubbornly walked out the front door of the last façade of their old life and didn’t look back. 

“Why don’t you get us something with your crossbow?” Nora teased, gently bumping Charlie’s shoulder. 

“Too tired,” the girl sighed, leaning her head down on Nora’s shoulder. 

Nora rested her cheek against the top of Charlie’s head and watched Rachel stretch out on her bedroll with a groan on the other side of the small fire Miles had started before taking off into the woods. Staying off the roads and out of towns and cities was safer, but it gave a sense of otherworldliness to their current lives, just on the other side of that hill there might be a house, with completely normal people inside of it, hanging onto hope that the lights would come back on and the world would go back to normal. Being out here, fighting to get things back to the way they were instead of sitting back and waiting to be saved, almost made it feel like there was nothing normal left to save. 

“How are you really, kiddo?” Nora asked, more softly this time, almost a whisper. “Being away from home like this,” she gestured at their surroundings. 

Charlie sat up, “I _am_ home.” She looked at Nora incredulously.

“You owe me,” Bass crowed, a large grey sort of bird in both hands, eyes twinkling in the light of the fire. He threw one on Charlie’s lap as he sat down on the log next to her, “Pluck it.” 

Charlie giggled and teased him, a sultry edge to her tone. After a while, Miles came back from his solitary walk, a haunted look in his eyes, and lay down on the bedroll next to Rachel, setting his arm gently on her stomach and whispering to her quietly. Nora warmed her hands on the fire and joked with Charlie and Bass, helped them prep the birds as Miles and Rachel planned their next move. 

After eating and a few rounds of charades, Nora slipped into the bedroll between Miles and Rachel and listened carefully as they told her the plan for tomorrow, went over their plan for the Tower one more time, drifted to sleep with their words in her ears, with the steady sound of Bass snoring in Charlie’s arms from the other side of the gently cracking fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first took this prompt, I knew that I wanted B/M/R/N to all collectively respond to the prompt "for the two of us, home is a person" with Charlie being that person. And then, when I started writing, I knew immediately that Mia had to die. It wasn't something I was particularly happy about, but it made sense for the sake of the story. I know I'm leaving the plot dangling a bit, with the gang headed to the Tower and no real conclusion, but this feels like the exact right moment to end, with Charlie telling Nora that home is the five of them together, them falling asleep in front of the fire and an adventure ahead of them. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.


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